The calls that did not connect

Optus's nationwide outage on 8 November 2023 left 2,145 unsuccessful emergency calls, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found, and Optus then failed to carry out 369 welfare checks it was required to make ¹.

It took just under a year to reach an ending. Three Optus companies paid infringement notices totalling $12,000,420, dated 4 November 2024 and announced four days later ²³⁹¹⁰. An infringement notice is a penalty set by the regulator, which a company can pay to end the matter without going to court. "Payment is not an admission of liability," the notice for Optus Mobile states ³. This article sets out what ACMA found, how it ended, and the same duty enforced elsewhere in the same period, before the record returns to Optus twenty-two months later.

01The duty

Access to Triple Zero is not left to a telco's discretion. In a media release of 30 July 2026 about the second major Optus outage, of 18 September 2025, ACMA described the duty in its own words ⁴.

That is the duty ACMA found Optus had failed in November 2023.

02What ACMA found

Of the 2,145 unsuccessful emergency calls ACMA counted, 2,144 were made to 000 or 112, the calls ACMA treats as access failures: 2,091 on Optus Mobile, 41 on Optus Networks and 12 on Optus Internet. One further call went to 106 ¹.

ACMA also found that Optus failed to carry out 369 welfare checks it was required to make after unsuccessful emergency calls, a count taken after legal exceptions removed 1,593 calls: 361 for Optus Mobile and 8 for Optus Networks ¹. ACMA's chair said its findings indicated the outage should have been preventable ².

03How it ended

The three infringement notices covered 4,698 alleged contraventions of section 148(1) of the Telecommunications (Consumer Protection and Service Standards) Act: Optus Mobile $11,098,980, Optus Networks $676,080 and Optus Internet $225,360, adding to $12,000,420 ³⁹¹⁰. The notices ended the matter without a court case. They are dated 4 November 2024, just under a year after the outage, and ACMA announced them on 8 November ²³.

Optus did admit part of it. Before the notices were issued, it acknowledged in writing that it had breached the welfare-check rule ¹.

The notices covered all 4,698 alleged contraventions between them. The notice for Optus Mobile states that payment carries no admission ³.

Three infringement notices, no court case, and the notice for Optus Mobile says payment is not an admission.

04The same rules, the same period

The same rules were enforced against Telstra the next month. ACMA said Telstra, the Emergency Call Person, paid a penalty of more than $3 million, announced on 11 December 2024, for what it said were 473 breaches, with 127 calls not transferred, during a disruption at its own Triple Zero call centre ⁵.

The disruption lasted about 90 minutes, on 1 March 2024 ⁵.

In the same period, a separate ACMA action turned on a different part of the Triple Zero system. On 6 March 2024, ACMA announced that Optus Mobile had paid $1,501,500 after failing to upload data for close to 200,000 Coles Mobile and Catch Connect customers to the Integrated Public Number Database between January 2021 and September 2023, the database Triple Zero uses for caller location ⁶. The database also feeds the Emergency Alert warning system.

ACMA also accepted a court-enforceable undertaking requiring an independent review of Optus's compliance with the database, and directed Optus to comply with the industry code that governs it.

ACMA said it was not aware of anyone directly harmed by the failure.

ACMA added that over the past 18 months it had taken action against five telcos for breaches of the same database rules, with financial penalties totalling more than $2 million ⁶.

THE REPORTING RORT has already set the $12 million Triple Zero notices beside the country's privacy-breach enforcement record.

05Twenty-two months

Twenty-two months after the first outage, it happened again. On 18 September 2025, a second major outage hit Optus's Triple Zero calls. On 30 July 2026, ACMA began Federal Court proceedings against Optus Mobile, alleging 1,005 contraventions of two emergency call obligations. Those allegations are, at this point, untested ⁴.

ACMA said the recurrence, so soon after the first outage, was one of its reasons for going to court ⁴.

Optus, in its submission to the Senate committee examining the second major outage, said improvements had been made since November 2023 and more was needed ⁷.

What ACMA alleges about the second major outage, and what a court might do with it, is the next part of this case.

Questions have not yet been put to ACMA or Optus; any answers will be added as dated updates.

Update, 7 October 2026. When this article was published on 25 September 2026, no questions had been put to ACMA, Optus or Telstra. THE RORT emailed all three on 2 October 2026, and a response was requested by 5pm AEDT on Thursday 8 October 2026. Any response, or its absence, will be added as dated updates.

Update, 8 October 2026. Optus's media team replied by email on 8 October 2026 to the questions THE RORT emailed on 2 October. The email is signed Optus Media Team and carries no request that it be kept off the record. It says: "Optus’s position on these matters is on the public record, including our submission to the Senate Environment and Communications Committee following the September 2025 Triple Zero outage." That submission is quoted above ⁷. The email also says: "Matters currently before the Federal Court will be addressed through the appropriate legal process." It links a release that Optus dated 21 September 2026 ⁸. The reply does not directly answer the questions. It does not say whether Optus contests the allegations in ACMA's Federal Court proceeding, and its Federal Court sentence names no matter, so this article does not say which matter it refers to. It does not say whether Optus accepts the other alleged contraventions covered by the November 2024 infringement notices, and it does not answer the question on the enforceable undertaking in the Integrated Public Number Database matter. In the release, Optus says its welfare check processes have been strengthened for customers affected by Triple Zero outages; that is Optus's statement, and the findings above on the November 2023 outage are unchanged. THE RORT's questions to ACMA and Telstra carry the same reply time, 5pm AEDT on Thursday 8 October 2026, and any answers, or their absence, will be added as dated updates.

Update, 8 October 2026. THE RORT emailed six questions on 2 October 2026 to the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts, on this case's two published articles. The Department's media team (Media Services) replied by email on 8 October 2026, on the record. The email says the response "can be attributed to a spokesperson from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts". The response reads, in full, in three paragraphs: "The Australian Government is continuing its priority work to strengthen the Triple Zero system and improve oversight and accountability of the telecommunications sector to ensure it delivers for the Australian community." "We have completed a number of significant reforms, including increasing maximum penalties for telcos who fail to follow Triple Zero rules to $30 million per breach, mandating real time reporting of outages to ACMA and emergency services, and ensuring Triple Zero calls fall back to other networks." "The Triple Zero Custodian is leading a review of the legislation and regulations underpinning the Triple Zero system, focused on identifying and addressing gaps in the framework and working towards a future model for Triple Zero that meets public expectations." The reply does not say whether the $30 million maximum applies to any conduct before 31 October 2025, including the 18 September 2025 outage (question 1). It does not say whether the Telecommunications Amendment (Enhancing Consumer Safeguards) Bill would change the maximum penalty for any breach of the Triple Zero rules (question 2). It does not say which 12 of the 18 Bean Review recommendations were in place when the government said, as the ABC reported on 22 September 2025, that 12 had been put in place, which six were not, or whether the position was the same on 18 September 2025 (question 3). It does not say as at what date the other 17 Bean Review recommendations were complete (question 4). It does not say when the government will respond to the Senate report of 21 September 2026 and to its recommendation for an independent review of ACMA (question 5). It does not say whether the caution of Labor senators on the committee against reviewing ACMA until an analysis of the Triple Zero framework and the ACCC's inquiry were completed, as the ABC reported on 21 September 2026, is the government's own position (question 6). No response was received from ACMA by the deadline, 5pm AEDT on Thursday 8 October 2026. No response was received from Telstra by the deadline, 5pm AEDT on Thursday 8 October 2026.

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